This blog is for parents interested in education and the 11 Plus Exam for children in the UK. We provide comment, tips and advice for parents with children studying for the 11 Plus Exam.

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Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Eleven Plus Cognitive Skills

Eleven plus children, who want to go to a grammar school,
`need’ to pass the eleven plus. We know that children have basic needs – along the
lines of food, water, sleep, clothing and so on. Children also need some form
of education in order that they can survive. But why do children `need’ to pass
the eleven plus?

Parents, teachers, schools, family and friends are all
making assumptions about a child in the build-up to the eleven plus
examination. Parents, of course, are
planning and specifying educational needs and objectives. Some parents will
allow any eleven plus objectives to take care of themselves. “If my child can
pass she will do it on her own. We do not need to have to work through eleven
plus books and papers.”

Other parents will be adopting a far more formal agenda. One
way and another they may be following at least parts of Bloom’s Classification
of Objectives. Bloom divided objectives into three categories – the cognitive,
the affective and the psycho-motor. Cognitive objectives lie around the
intellectual skills while affective objectives are to do with awareness and the
last with organising and structuring.

Why should an eleven plus child studying mathematics need to
know how to find ten per-cent of a number? It is reasonably simple to show an
eleven plus child how to find 10% - but it does involve several elements. A
child has to be able to understand what a `per-cent’ is. He or she must also be
able to interpret and understand the `%’ sign. There is also the question of the
size of the number. Finding 10% to 24 is reasonably easy. Finding 10% of 0.0045
is possibly a little more difficult. Understanding the implications of a 10%
discount is, possibly, even more demanding.

Do we really need to teach percentages? At the moments any eleven
plus children, for the mathematics part of the examination, need to be able to
work out 10% of a given number. What is really important is that they can use
this skill to be able to deduce a worthy eleven plus answer.

Developing and testing numerical reasoning questions suggests
that certain types of grammar schools require children who can think and reason.
The children may also need to be able to solve simple problems – but it is in the
application of the processes in arriving at an answer that we find the higher
level cognitive skills.